450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



velopment of the growing infant in height is perhaps less well 

 known to hygienists and physicians than to veterinary surgeons 

 and trainers. It has long been observed that young horses which 

 are put to work too early never become as large as their fellow- 

 colts which are allowed to reach their full growth in the pasture. 

 Gymnastic apparatus, with the efforts which they necessitate, 

 would have on the child the same dwarfing influence as harness- 

 ing to the wagon or the plow upon the colt. The infant prodigies 

 of the circus sufficiently exemplify this fact. With all the skill 

 they display, they seldom exhibit well-grown, evenly developed 

 forms, but are usually in some way distorted ; and persons who 

 have begun hard work on farms or as laborers too early in life 

 are generally stunted. Besides being unevenly distributed in 

 time, these exercises are badly localized as to the different parts 

 of the body. All exercises with fixed apparatus — the trapeze, 

 the stationary bar, rings, parallel bars, slack rope, etc. — throw 

 the work wholly upon the upper part of the body, leaving the 

 muscles of the pelvis and lower limbs comparatively inactive. 

 This is not so much matter with city men, who have to walk a 

 great deal ; but is a very important consideration with children at 

 school, who spend most of their time sitting on benches. 



In children muscular effort should be generalized, so as to 

 make as great a number of muscles as possible participate in it, 

 or at least to distribute it judiciously among the stronger mus- 

 cles. When each group of muscles shares in the exercise accord- 

 ing to its strength, the labor is less fatiguing, and we are able to 

 obtain the general benefit of exercise — which is the communica- 

 tion of the highest activity of the circulation and respiration, 

 without incurring the harmful results which are forms of fatigue. 

 This benefit is more conveniently obtained through exercise of 

 the legs than of the arms, because they are stronger and can bear 

 more work without fatigue. In such exercises, of which running 

 is the type, not only the legs but the pelvis, the vertebral column, 

 the shoulders, and the arms, all participate. Exercises in which 

 the work is localized, however much they may contribute to the 

 development of the active part in the adult, do not have that 

 effect in children, the volume of whose muscles is never increased 

 by them. They are consequently useless, while they promote 

 fatigue. They are liable to the further objection that they tend 

 to produce deformities in young children subjected to them, whose 

 plastic frames at their tender age yield very readily to any stress 

 which is put upon them, and acquire a permanent set if it is re- 

 peated too often. Partisans of gymnastics plead, in answer to 

 this objection, that their system may be and is used to correct 

 bodily deformities ; but the plea really strengthens the argument 

 against the system, for the same structure that yields to a correct- 



